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Both OCLC and the Research Libraries Group (RLG) are doing something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. They're making information from their union catalogs available via the web to the general public.

The two vendors have taken decidedly different approaches. OCLC offers it's Worldcat records via Yahoo and Google, while RedLightGreen offers a full-featured, search-able, union catalog. According to a recent article by David Mattison, "RedLightGreen and Open Worldcat",
"RedLightGreen gets right down to it, just like Google, with an in-your-face keyword search field. Once I viewed the search results and individual bibliographic records display, the site gave me the impression of working with a really cool library OPAC (online public access catalog), one that even found Google search results within some bibliographic records."

Doesn't it make you wish that they'd offer a custom version of this product to act as an OPAC for a specific library or group of libraries? At least, that's what I found myself wishing! No more downloading of records from RLIN into a separate product, just catalog your records in RLIN, then have them automatically include them in your very own RedLightGreen!

I can dream, can't I?

For more details on these resources, see "RedLightGreen and Open Worldcat", by David Mattison in the April 2005 issue of Searcher Magazine. (Available for $2.95 from the Information Today web site.)

Not to worry, I'll get back to Internet Librarian again, but in the meantime the new Yahoo-OCLC Toolbar was announced, and I thought you should know.

Remember that OCLC has offered the complete Worldcat database to Google and Yahoo so that searchers can find books and the libraries that own them. All the information isn't there yet, there's only 2 million of the 57 million records available in the full WorldCat, but more is coming.

This new joint toolbar let's you search for a book by simply popping your search terms in the search box, and selecting "libraries" from the search drop-down:

Let's say you're browsing Amazon and find a book you'd like to read. But why not borrow instead of buy? After all, maybe your local library has it. There's a way to quickly find out if they do without going to the library's web site and running a search. Instead, install this handy bookmarklet, click whenever you're on a page that includes a ISBN number, and it will search your library's catalog automatically and let you know if they own it, assuming they are using one of the supported online catalogs. But there's more.

I'm excited that so many search engines, such as Amazon's A9 and Google are directing people to, of all things, books. We know that not everything is on the web, and books contain valuable information, but if they're not represented somehow in the web search engine results, all that good stuff will go to waste.

Yahoo search is now getting into the act with their recent announcement that they will join the OCLC Open WorldCat Project. Two million cataloging records are now included in Yahoo search results, complete with a list of libraries holding any particular item. For more details see Barbara Quint's Newsbreak, Yahoo! Search Joins OCLC Open WorldCat Project.

OCLC Worldcat contains detailed information on more than 53 million books, serials, tapes, videos, etc. held by thousands of libraries, essentially pointers to hard copy materials and where they can be found. Though OCLC was originally conceived to help libraries share cataloging information, it's also a very valuable research tool. Even Google thinks so! They plan to include 2 million Worldcat records in their search results in the near future.

In the March/April issue of Online Magazine, Peter Jasco discusses how to use Worldcat to answer the question "Which is the best book on __________________?" He suggests searching on a topic, then sorting search results by the number of libraries that hold each item, showing the most popular titles at the top of the list.

Select records from OCLC's Worldcat are soon to be included in Google search results according to "OCLC Project Opens WorldCat Records to Google"